New Delhi, Jan 12 (IANS) Samsung on Friday launched blood pressure (BP) and electrocardiogram (ECG) tracking features for the Galaxy Watch6 series for the first time in India through an OTA (over-the-air) rollout.

With the Samsung Health Monitor BP and ECG tracking, users can monitor their health, support their fitness regimes and enable regular health checkups.

Users can download the Samsung Health Monitor App, available on the Galaxy Store, and follow simple instructions to measure their BP and ECG.

Both features will also be made available on the Galaxy Watch4 and Watch5 series, the company said.

"The BP and ECG tracking features via Samsung Health Monitor App have received regulatory clearances and certifications from India’s Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation," Samsung said.

The Galaxy Watch6 series is designed to help users build healthier habits every day and through the night.

The Galaxy Watch6 series packs health offerings and powerful performance in a refined and sleek design, boasting a slimmer bezel, a larger and more vibrant display and a more interactive user interface.

Both Galaxy Watch6 and Galaxy Watch6 Classic models also allow users to access a greater selection of versatile watch faces as well as new trendy strap options that empower them to meet their fitness goals.

The new Galaxy Watch6 series provides personalised health guidance, purposeful design upgrades and an enhanced mobile experience for a more informed and healthier self.

The Galaxy Watch6 series also comes with the 'Tap & Pay' feature, enabling consumers to make payments on the go right from their wrist.

New Delhi, Jan 7 (IANS) Smartwatch sales are likely to see a 17 per cent growth globally in 2024, with an anticipated shipment of 83 million units, a new report has shown.

Initially attracted to basic or affordable smartwatches, users are now seeking enhanced functionality, especially those who purchased devices during the pandemic.

“Vendors aim to boost shipment revenues by promoting advanced smartwatches with upcoming hardware improvements, including significant battery life enhancements and the potential arrival of micro-LED screens on premium devices,” said Jack Leathem, research analyst at market research firm Canalys.

These enhancements also encompass novel fitness and health capabilities like blood pressure monitoring and sleep apnea detection, which are expected to become new industry standards when introduced by Apple in its Watches.

“With regards to its recent ban by the US’s International Trade Commission (ITC), prior generation devices are expected to account for the majority of lost shipments in the US market,” Leathem added.

The wearable band market is poised for a more substantial uplift, with a 10 per cent growth in 2024.

“The global shift to advanced smartwatches will be most evident in emerging regions, with the Middle East and Central and Eastern Europe expected to see a remarkable 27 per cent and 22 per cent respective increase in smartwatch shipments in 2024,” said Cynthia Chen, research manager.

The global wearable band market analysis forecast a 2 per cent rise in 2023, reaching 186 million units.

This growth is primarily driven by a significant 22 per cent surge in basic watch shipments in emerging markets, notably India.

This increase effectively counterbalances a 9 per cent decrease in smartwatch sales and a 10 per cent reduction in basic band shipments, the report mentioned.

“Basic watches emerged as the standout trend in 2023, with the category expected to form more than 40 per cent share of wearable band shipments this year,” said Leathem.

New Delhi, May 24 (IANSlife) Are you a dedicated runner seeking to improve your workouts and monitor your development? You could find the ideal jogging buddy to be a fitness tracker. Choosing one option from the many that are offered can be difficult. We have put up a list of the top 7 fitness trackers for runners to assist you in making an informed choice. These trackers include cutting-edge functionality, precise tracking, and a secure fit. Let's investigate the best choices we have!

Garmin Forerunner 945

Garmin Forerunner 945 is a premium fitness tracker that excels in meeting the needs of avid runners. It boasts advanced features such as built-in GPS, heart rate monitoring, VO2 max estimation, and training load analysis. The Forerunner 945 also provides personalized training plans and recovery recommendations. With its long battery life, comprehensive tracking, and accurate navigation, it's a top choice for serious runners.

PLAYFIT STRENGTH

PLAYFIT STRENGTH is the way to go. It's a waterproof smartwatch with Bluetooth calling, a touchscreen, activity tracking, sports modes, and wireless networking. With a long list of incredible features, this innovative device will help you achieve your fitness goals on time. Just purchase this small device of wonder and encourage them to lead a physically active and mentally healthy lifestyle.

Fitbit Charge 4

Fitbit Charge 4 is a versatile fitness tracker that offers excellent features for running enthusiasts. It comes with built-in GPS, heart rate monitoring, sleep tracking, and Active Zone Minutes. The Charge 4 provides detailed insights into your pace, distance, and heart rate zones during runs. With its sleek design and intuitive interface, it's a popular choice among fitness enthusiasts.

Polar Vantage V2

Polar Vantage V2 is a high-end multisport fitness tracker specifically designed for athletes, including runners. It offers accurate GPS tracking, running power measurements, recovery tracking, and personalized training plans. The Vantage V2 also provides comprehensive sleep and recovery analysis, allowing you to optimize your training and performance. With its durable build and long battery life, it's perfect for dedicated runners.

Apple Watch Series 7

Apple Watch Series 7 combines style, functionality, and powerful fitness tracking features. It features built-in GPS, heart rate monitoring, and a variety of workout modes for runners. The Series 7 offers ECG functionality, blood oxygen level measurements, and access to the Apple Fitness+ platform. With its sleek design, vibrant display, and extensive app ecosystem, it's a popular choice for fitness enthusiasts.

Samsung Galaxy Watch Active 2

Samsung Galaxy Watch Active 2 is a stylish and feature-packed fitness tracker suitable for running enthusiasts. It offers accurate GPS tracking, heart rate monitoring, and automatic workout detection. The watch also provides guided breathing exercises and sleep tracking to support overall well-being. With its customizable watch faces, third-party app compatibility, and excellent battery life, it's a versatile choice for runners.

Suunto 9 Baro

Suunto 9 Baro is a rugged and durable GPS watch designed for endurance runners. It offers exceptional battery life of up to 120 hours, making it ideal for long-distance runs. The watch features intelligent battery modes, accurate GPS tracking, and altitude and weather information. The Suunto 9 Baro also provides training insights and navigation support, making it a reliable choice for trail runners.

Finding the ideal fitness tracker for running will help you keep track of your progress, enhance your performance, and maintain motivation. Whether you select the Apple Watch Series 7, the Fitbit Charge 4, or the Garmin Forerunner 945's cutting-edge capabilities, these trackers will improve your running performance. Choose the one that best suits your requirements, then drive with assurance!

New Delhi, May 10 (IANS) Apple has introduced a new Pride Edition Sport Band accompanied by a matching watch face and iOS wallpaper, as the company celebrates the ongoing movement to protect and advance equality for the LGBTQ+ communities around the world.

The Pride Edition Sport Band will be available for Rs 4,500 from May 23 on apple.com and at Apple Store locations beginning May 24.

The Pride Edition Sport Band is available in 41 mm and 45 mm sizes, and is compatible with Apple Watch Series 3 and later.

The new Pride Celebration watch face and iPhone wallpaper will be available next week, and requires watchOS 9.5 and iOS 16.5.

The new Sport Band design showcases the original pride flag rainbow colours and five others  black and brown symbolise Black and Latin communities, in addition to those who have passed away from or are living with HIV/AIDS, while light blue, pink, and white represent transgender and nonbinary individuals.

This year's design integrates a joyful rainbow of geometric shapes on a white base, which are compression-moulded into the final band.

In the forming process, the base material flows around each individual shape, creating small variations in their layout.

No two bands are exactly alike, reflecting the individuality of all members of the LGBTQ+ community, said the company.

New Delhi- Homegrown smart accessories brand Gizmore on Monday announced the launch of its aspirational smartwatch -- 'Vogue' with a large 1.95-inch Always-on display at an affordable price of Rs 1,999.

The smartwatch comes available in three colour options -- Black, Orange and White. It will be available for purchase from March 2023 on the company's official website and online store.

"It is a trendy smartwatch with an eye-catching design and packs all the modern features young tech enthusiasts look for at a budget-friendly price. Gizmore is known for its premium quality affordable smartwatches, and with Vogue, we are looking at cementing our position even further," Sanjay Kalirona, CEO and Co-Founder of Gizmore, said in a statement.

Gizmore Vogue is aesthetically designed and not just appealing but extremely lightweight and comfortable.

The metal casing and a square dial add to its premium look and feel. With a 91 per cent body-to-screen ratio, it offers a bigger edge-to-edge display with a better form factor, the company said.

Click here for latest models of Smart Watches avaialble in India

Moreover, the smartwatch offers a split-screen view for the shortcut menu, plus the Always-on display screen offers 600 nits of brightness, making it easy to use even in harsh sunlight.

Gizmore Vogue supports over 100 watch faces, enabling users to customise their watch completely as per their choice.

Further, the smartwatch comes equipped with a rotating dial, making it super easy and convenient to navigate the menu.

It has two dedicated buttons -- one for power on and off and second to view recent tasks, which is a unique feature and shortcut to reach on the last opened application.

The smartwatch offers a GPS trajectory feature which allows users to track all their activity and share it with friends and family via the Vfit app.

The built-in sensors let users accurately capture the data and make healthy life choices.

The smartwatch also has all the essential trackers and allows users to monitor their heart rate, SpO2 levels, menstrual cycle, and sleep cycle and even gives meditation, sedentary and dehydration reminders, the company said.

Gizmore Vogue is an advanced Bluetooth calling smartwatch with a 5.1 Bt version that comes with a better experience and is very convenient to talk on the watch itself.

This feature allows users to seamlessly answer or reject calls and listen to music on their Gizmore Vogue.

The smartwatch is IP67 certified, which makes it immune to accidental spills, sweat and dust, and also supports Apple Siri and Google voice assistants.

Gizmore Vogue has a large battery that can easily last ten days on a single charge and supports wireless charging and gives two days' backup while on call, according to the company.

The company has recently partnered with Optiemus Electronics Limited (a homegrown electronics manufacturing company) to manufacture around 1 million smartwatches in the next 12 months.

(IANS)

London: A UK-based man has credited Apple Watch for pointing medics towards an undiagnosed heart condition.

Author Adam Croft, 36, from Flitwick in Bedfordshire, UK, awoke to find his Apple device had been alerting him throughout the night that his heart was in Atrial fibrillation, reports BBC.

"It's not a feature I'd ever expected to use," he was quoted as saying.

In an interview, Croft said that he had got up from the sofa one evening and "felt a bit dizzy" but when he got to the kitchen to get some water he "immediately felt the world closing in."

"I managed to get down on the floor and ended up in a pool of cold sweat," he said.

The next morning, he woke to find that his watch had been alerting him every couple of hours that his heart was in a rhythm known as Atrial fibrillation -- and that he should seek medical attention.

"I called 111 (UK medical helpline) who said get to hospital within the hour," Croft said.

Additional testing at Bedford Hospital in the UK confirmed that Croft was in Atrial fibrillation. Croft claims he would not have gone to the hospital if he hadn't received an alert from his Apple Watch, the report said.

Moreover, the writer claimed to have previously experienced "little flutterings" of the heart that his watch had missed, but these had not occurred in months.

He had also "never had any pain or symptoms that I thought were serious."

The report said that after testing confirmed the Atrial fibrillation, doctors put Croft on blood thinners.

He will now undergo a cardioversion procedure, which involves the use of "quick, low-energy shocks to restore a regular heart rhythm."

Croft concluded, saying: "The watch will be staying on now."

New York, Feb 23 (IANS) Love to use smartwatches, fitness trackers to keep a check on your health? If you are using pacemakers or other implanted cardiac electronic devices for your heart health, these wearable gadgets may inadvertently affect your heart health, warned a study.

The rise of wearable health tech has grown rapidly in recent years, blurring the line between medical and consumer devices.

The study, published in Heart Rhythm, noted that despite the obvious benefits, certain fitness and wellness trackers could pose serious risks among people using cardiac implantable electronic devices such as pacemakers, implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs), and cardiac resynchronisation therapy (CRT) devices.

It is because the smartwatches, rings or scales emit electrical currents which can interfere with these lifesaving implantable heart devices, causing them to malfunction.

"The present findings do not recommend the use of these devices in this population due to potential interference," said researchers from the University of Utah in the US.

For the study, the team evaluated the safety of smart scales, smart watches, and smart rings with bioimpedance technology via simulation and testing.

"Bioimpedance sensing generated an electrical interference that exceeded Food and Drug Administration-accepted guidelines and interfered with proper CIED functioning," explained lead investigator Benjamin Sanchez Terrones, from the varsity's Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

He emphasised that the results, determined through careful simulations and benchtop testing, do not convey an immediate or clear risk to patients who wear the trackers, but noted that the different levels emitted could result in pacing interruptions or unnecessary shocks to the heart.

"Our findings call for future clinical studies examining patients with CIEDs and wearables."

San Francisco, Feb 22 (IANS) Apple has armed global researchers with Apple Watch devices to help explore new frontiers in heart health, the company said on Wednesday.

Using Apple's newly launched Investigator Support Programme, researchers can pioneer understanding of the heart with Apple Watch devices.

Apple Watch is currently known to provide heart health features such as high and low heart notifications, cardio fitness, irregular rhythm notifications, the ECG app, and atrial fibrillation (AFib) history.

With the new programme, Australia-based paediatric oncologists Associate Professor Rachel Conyers and Claudia Toro are looking at how treatment can impact heart rhythm.

"I read about the Apple Heart Study and I thought this could be important for paediatrics," Conyers said in a statement.

"We used to think of cardiac toxicity as something that happened 10 years after treatment. But now we know that new cancer therapies (like specific inhibitors or immune therapy) can cause arrhythmias within 48 hours of medication -- so there's a big gap in terms of what we know about the toxicities at the moment," she added.

Conyers and her team at the Murdoch Children's Research Institute in Melbourne will begin with researching the sensitivity of the Apple Watch ECG app. The study on 40 children and adolescent patients aims to better understand the reality of cardiac toxicity and identify potential opportunities for intervention.

Further, So-Min Cheong from Texas A&M University and Brian Kim and Marco Perez at Stanford Medicine in the US plan to use Apple Watch to study the impact of wildfire smoke on heart health.

Using Apple Watch, the team plans to monitor heart rate and rhythm, sleep, blood oxygen, activity data, and more in up to 200 firefighters.

"Firefighters are bound to benefit from the study," said Cheong. "We know wildfire smoke directly affects their health and with a study like this, they'll be able to see their results in real time."

Similarly, researchers at the Amsterdam University Medical Centers in Europe also aim to use Apple Watch to detect AFib earlier.

The randomised controlled study will enrol more than 300 patients over the age of 65 who meet a risk threshold for AFib.

AFib is a common heart arrhythmia that can have serious impacts -- such as a higher risk of stroke or heart failure -- if left untreated.

"Apple Watch is such a widely used, reliable consumer wearable that we thought it would be a great device for us to integrate into our research to better understand how we could potentially integrate it into the larger health system," said Sebastiaan Blok, director of eHealth at the Cardiology Centers of the Netherlands.

San Francisco: Apple Watch has helped to save the wearer's life, by alerting about a racing pulse following a nap that led to a diagnosis of severe internal bleeding.

Taking to Reddit, the owner, account named "digitalmofo", shared the incident with the title, "Well, my Apple Watch 7 just saved my life."

The Redditor mentioned that a week before the post, "I had my iPhone/watch on dnd for work, and when I went on lunch I was kind of tired so I laid down on my couch for a quick nap."

After the nap, the owner checked the notifications and had at least 10 notifications stating that the pulse was racing.

"I called out the rest of the day and tried to lay around, but it didn't stop, so I scheduled a quick video with my Dr. My Dr had me check the times and pulse rates, had me check the oxygen and then went ahead and called 911 for me," the Redditor added.

The owner further mentioned that "severe internal bleeding" was the cause.
"Emergency medical services (EMS) originally said it was a heart attack, but it was GI bleeding. They said had I not got there for a transfusion when I did, I'd not have made it," the user mentioned.

(IANS)